gil4

ESPN headline for the video clip: "Buxton crashes into the wall to rob Olson of extra bases" Me: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

My routine reading included Gleeman, Seth, and "Twins Geek" Bonnes. I liked his family nicknames Bonnes used - Voice of Reason and Chatty Chatty Princess (and was there also The Boy, or was that from somewhere else - maybe Dave Barry?). Thinking about how old my kids were then and how old they are now, and I bet Princess is an adult now and would give dad a hard time if she found out someone remembered that name.

Did we make another trade that I didn't hear about? ? I'd say Miranda (pretty sure that's who you meant) needs to play full time somewhere, and Urshela might have to adapt to a utility role.

Especially when you consider draft order. The highest the Twins picked in that stretch was 14 (Hicks in 2008). 2010-2015 gave us Buxton, three guys with ,2 career WAR each (Gordon and Stewart could still add on, but probably not much.) In that time, they had pick 21, 30, 2, 4, 5, and 6. 2011 - Twins drafted Levi Michael #30 - there were 6 hits and 24 misses in the next 30. Jackie Bradley or Trevor Story would have been nice, but there were a lot of options on the table that would have been equal busts. 2012 - 60 matching player(s). 40 played in the majors (66%). Total of 264.3 WAR, or 6.6 per major leaguer. (Twins got Buxton at 2 plus Berrios in the supplemental (#32) - 27 WAR and counting between them. Two hits in a deep draft) 2013 - 39 matching player(s). 30 played in the majors (76%). Total of 141.0 WAR, or 4.7 per major leaguer. (39.7 WAR in picks 1-3) Twins left a lot of opportunity on the table. 2014 - 41 matching player(s). 28 played in the majors (68%). Total of 139.2 WAR, or 5.0 per major leaguer. (20.5 WAR in picks 1-4) Weird draft - #1 and #2 didn't make it past A ball, #6 has a career OPS+ of 27. Nola (7), Turner (13), and Chapman (25 ) were more than half the WAR for the class. This was the 2nd year in a row the Astros selected #1 and got nothing (Appel, Aiken). It doesn't matter where you hit, as long as you hit somewhere. 2015 - 42 matching player(s). 31 played in the majors (73%). Total of 100.8 WAR, or 3.3 per major leaguer. (46.1 WAR in picks 1-5) Weak draft overall, Benintendi was next, but there were a lot of busts. The 2011 (edit - I meant 2012) supplemental (31-60) was probably equal to the top 30 in this draft. I'm not sure there was to this other than the draft is a crapshoot and you need to get one or two of the 10+ WAR guys for it to be a success.

Walt Bond/"Died of leukemia (diagnosed 1962) in September 1967." It seems like a lot of progress has made in the treatment of leukemia. Former Twin Danny Thompson died of Leukemia in 1976. I knew at least three people who died of it in the 1980s. Since then. I haven't heard of any. Is the impression mistaken? Is it just that I am no longer in the age bracket that's hardest hit? (My kids are in the bracket now that I was in then, and I haven't heard of any of their friends having it.)

I agree and think it is realistic (although the numbers may vary.) Just to expand on what the players would want, the minimum would have to be a hard minimum with stiff penalties, and the maximum would have to be a soft cap, with penalties scaled based on the amount over the cap and the number of years over the cap (like they are now.)

Roxy was far more effective than I expected.

Except for the full no-trade clause in the deal. That shouldn't be too big a stumbling block - it the Twins decide to move on, they can probably find a team he is willing to go to.

I agree. I also believe it is far more likely that Buxton will figure out how to stay healthy than trading Buxton will bring in someone of comparable talent.

Welcome back from Tahiti (or maybe you were just ignoring the Twins, which is understandable.) They traded Berrios to the Blue Jays a month ago.

Hopefully it was 2019-2020 Tyler Duffey we were comparing him to.

I'd take that. Stewart had a career OBP of .360, so add a few walks... I would also hope that he could become a better defender than Stewart, which isn't a particularly high bar to get over.

The umpire made a bit of movement after that pitch, but it was all with his left hand. I don't think he got the call on that one, and I don't think he ever would (except maybe with a robo-ump - occasionally pitches with a sharp downward break look low to everyone except the computer.)

Heretic. ?

I'd prefer to keep Kepler, and trading Donaldson's contract was never going to be easy.

I'd rather see free than have someone's definition of fair imposed. I do understand that some degree of competitive balance is in everyone's best interest (and most other sports do it better because of the way they divide the TV money), but the money also has to be divided between the risk-takers/investors and the earners. I agree to an extent about the minor-leaguers. The biggest offense I see there is they don't get to collectively bargain. The MLBPA negotiates "on their behalf", but they can't actually be members of the union until they are in the majors.

We have seen that system, so we don't have to speculate. They wouldn't.

The problem is you are comparing their income to the average income. They aren't average. Of the millions of people who play baseball, they are the top 800 or so. In 1970, movie stars got paid big bucks. Top musicians got paid big bucks. Why? Because if the actors didn't like their pay, they could go to a different studio. The musicians could sign with another label. But baseball players couldn't do that - they could either re-sign for what they were offered or hold out, which except for a few stars would have resulted in them being blacklisted by the sport. Now, they can eventually earn a certain level of freedom, after 4-5 years of team control as minor leaguers and then another 5-6 years in the majors (3 years of arbitration?) What is stopping you? Are you not in the top .0001% in your field? (Or does the market not widely differentiate between the to .0001 percent and the top 1% in your field as it does in theirs.) Are you free to go to another employer? Maybe the market just won't pay that kind of money for the goods and/or services that you help deliver, or the part you play isn't as difficult to replace as the part they play in their business.

I think your figure shows how much the salaries of the players were artificially suppressed 50 years ago, rather than an indicator that we should go back to the previous system.

Part of the trade was giving Cruz the better that he deserved. This team is going nowhere. At age 41, Cruz doesn't have many more shots. He is now on a team that could be going somewhere. Do you think Cruz is angry over how he was treated? Heck, no. I'm sure he is disappointed how the year has gone, but he has to be thankful for the opportunity he has now been given.

Throw in a Hosken Powell, a Dan Ford, and Wille Norwood's glove and we're there.

I'm from Connecticut, so I had to make sure grinders were also OK. (Is there anywhere else in the world that uses that term? I've done a lot of traveling, but I've never had a grinder outside of CT.)

There's a cure for that. The Cuervo gold ... the fine Colombian ...

With his luck, I have him at 50-50 to get struck by lightning, so maybe that triple crown thing isn't so far-fetched.

He could be. All he has to do is keep this up for the next 15 years or so. Simple, right?